Magazine sneak peek May 2023

You'll also find out about a gray fox pup that was saved by kind humans after a serious fall. Once he recovered, the pup had a photo shoot with National Geographic Explorer Joel Sartore as part of the Photo Ark project. Hoping to inspire people to protect animals, Sartore has photographed nearly 14,000 species and counting!

Next, learn if you'd survive in the age of dinosaurs by taking our claw-some quiz, featuring amazing illustrations and fun facts about these prehistoric creatures that were around millions of years before humans.

Then check out 30 cool things about food, including tasty facts about cotton candy, french fries, bananas, and more.

Also be sure to see the results of our latest Whatcha Think? poll to learn which landmark Nat Geo Kids readers would most like to visit.

Plus, get a free pull-out poster of two adorable harvest mice. Finally, have your parents visit our giveaway page between May 1-8 so they can enter for a chance to win a dino prize pack, including a dinosaur dig kit and a copy of the Nat Geo Kids book How to Survive in the Age of Dinosaurs. Please note, no entries will be accepted after May 8, 2023.

Other stories in this month's issue:

• Amazing Animals: Meet a dog that surfs and a pig that saved her owner. Plus, find out about a seal pup mystery in England.
• Weird But True: Check out fun facts you can share with your friends.
• Guinness World Records: Read about ginormous antlers, a really long stretch limo, and a man who walked along a superhigh slackline stretched between two hot-air balloons.
• Bet You Didn't Know: Find out seven sweet facts about animal siblings.

Get these stories and more in the May issue, on sale April 14.

Watch the trailer for Secrets of the Elephants, on National Geographic April 21.

A three-foot-deep watering hole in northeast India hums with buzzing insects and chirping birds. Suddenly seven Asian elephants stomp through the grass surrounding the pool and splash into the water. It’s bath time for the herd. THE BIGGER THE BETTER Asian elephants live in the tropical forests and grasslands of Southeast Asia. They’re a little smaller than African elephants but can grow nine feet tall and weigh nearly six tons. That’s heavier than two medium-size cars! Even newborns are on the hefty side, weighing some 200 pounds. Given their size it’s no surprise that these guys are big on food. Adults can eat 300 pounds in one day, nearly 75 times what the average human eats! An Asian elephant’s ideal meal includes roots, grasses, fruit, and bark. Much of an Asian elephant’s time is spent searching for grub. In fact the animal may travel 50 miles a day to find food. Asian elephants also enjoy taking dips in the water. To cool down their backsides, the animals will fill their trunks with water and spray it over themselves like a hose. SOCIAL NETWORK Asian elephants are gentle and super-social. Related females live with their young in herds. (Adult males go off on their own.) To communicate with each other they use rumbles, bellows, growls, and moans. Some of their vocalizations can be heard more than a mile away. Talk about a long-distance call! Text by Andrea Silen / NGS Staff

When an elephant drinks, it sucks as much as 2 gallons (7.5 liters) of water into its trunk at a time. Then it curls its trunk under, sticks the tip of its trunk into its mouth, and blows. Out comes the water, right down the elephant's throat. Since African elephants live where the sun is usually blazing hot, they use their trunks to help them keep cool. First they squirt a trunkful of cool water over their bodies. Then they often follow that with a sprinkling of dust to create a protective layer of dirt on their skin. Elephants pick up and spray dust the same way they do water—with their trunks. Elephants also use their trunks as snorkels when they wade in deep water. An elephant's trunk is controlled by many muscles. Two fingerlike parts on the tip of the trunk allow the elephant to perform delicate maneuvers such as picking a berry from the ground or plucking a single leaf off a tree. Elephants can also use its trunk to grasp an entire tree branch and pull it down to its mouth and to yank up clumps of grasses and shove the greenery into their mouths. When an elephant gets a whiff of something interesting, it sniffs the air with its trunk raised up like a submarine periscope. If threatened, an elephant will also use its trunk to make loud trumpeting noises as a warning. Elephants are social creatures. They sometimes hug by wrapping their trunks together in displays of greeting and affection. Elephants also use their trunks to help lift or nudge an elephant calf over an obstacle, to rescue a fellow elephant stuck in mud, or to gently raise a newborn elephant to its feet. And just as a human baby sucks its thumb, an elephant calf often sucks its trunk for comfort. One elephant can eat 300 pounds (136 kilograms) of food in one day. People hunt elephants mainly for their ivory tusks. Adult females and young travel in herds, while adult males generally travel alone or in groups of their own.

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Check out the issue!

Other stories in this month's issue:

Read This Next

Photo Ark

Asian Elephant

Funny Fill-Ins

African Elephant

Legal

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